OKC Public Schools Dealing With Increased Vandalism Problems

Three more schools in the Oklahoma City School District were vandalized over the weekend. The district says they’ve had 100 cases of vandalism this year and now they’re taking steps to stop it.

The early June break-in at Douglass Mid-High school, where vandals broke glass and ransacked the front office, now looks to be a disappointing omen of how the rest of the summer would go. North Highland Elementary also suffered damage late last month as did several other schools across the district.

Just since last Thursday, someone spray painted Adams Elementary, broke into a portable classroom at Webster Middle School and stole two big metal gates from Classen SAS.

In total this year, the district says the vandals have done about $60,000 in damages.

“That money has to come from somewhere, so that means it’s being taken away from something else in order for us to fix that stuff,” said spokesperson Courtney Morton.

So Morton says the district's head of security spent the entire day Wednesday interviewing candidates to bring the security staff up to 10 full time armed security guards that will patrol the schools at night. In addition the district will be upgrading their security systems using money from a recent bond issue, and now has a public hotline to encourage everyone to keep an eye on their neighborhood schools and alert them if you see something suspicious. That number is 587-SAFE.

“Even if it turns out to be nothing they would rather people call and report those types of things just so it can be looked at.”